The Threaded Needle
by Rigil Paix
Summary: Alternate Ending Fic: If Squall doesn't kill Ultemecia, can time ever uncompress?


Rinoa ran through the flowered field, screaming his name. She looked to the darkening blue sky for a sign, a flicker, a flare, a figure, anything to tell her what she wanted to hear. A still, empty sky stared back. Dropping to the grass she began to cry.  
  
"Squall," she sobbed out, "you promised."  
  
* * * *  
  
"SeeD. SeeD SeeD SeeD. Kurse all SeeD."  
  
Ultemecia's words ring hollow in my ears again, although they scared me witless the first time I heard them. The witch's horrid lisp was more of a joke this time around; something to be borne like her prideful boasting before her ultimate defeat. I watched as it played out again, Selphie, clutching her oversized nunchaku, fell to her hands and knees... then slumped forward unable to catch herself. Then went Zell and Rinoa, valiantly urging the others to go on as they themselves fell by the wayside, to be swept up by the tide of time. Finally it came down to the three of us...  
  
I remembered it well, because I had done it before, like I had done it all of my life, except this was a point in time I would never see, my gravestone being long eroded and forgotten. Here I am, and there I am, defeating an impossible evil in a time that would never matter to me, becoming a hero to people my great-grandchildren would never meet. It just doesn't mean anything this time; all that matters is that this time, I'm going home...  
  
I watched uncompassionately as the other three fall to her hands, their bodies being temporally displaced and deposited in the empty space her time compression had created. There we stand, as we stood last time, Quistis on the left, Irvine on the right, and that other Squall, myself, in the middle...  
  
Greaver was dripping with Ultemecia's blood, from tip to hammer, but it seemed like she just wouldn't die. Irvine's suppressing fire worked well, while I hacked and slashed away and Quistis flayed her skin with her whip. It looked dismal, like it did the last time, as Ultemecia pulled one last ace from her sleeve and changed form for the final time...  
  
Her hooded figure merely pointed a fingure at Quistis, and she clutched her arm; her magic had increased a hundred fold when she changed. Quisty, in very obvious pain, cast her Blue Magic Machine Gun angering the witch more, until she swiped at her and knocked her unconsious. I was gone; the anger in me just built to a fever pitch as I unleashed my fury in a Renzokuken, draingin me of energy when I hit the ground at last. Ultemecia's power was waning, now was the time...  
  
Irvine freaked as he realized Quisty fell, running to her as if she were Selphie, throwing the other me off balance, just before I ran by. I forced the other Squall's head down and jumped over him, my own Greaver clean, but wicked and gleaming in Ultemecia's harsh magic light. I brought it up, and carved it down; down deep into Ultemecia's body, slicing through with all of my anger, hatred, fear, and despair. I want to go home, I want to love Rinoa... Give me back my future, you bitch!  
  
The sword had found it's mark and drove as deep as it it could, as if it and my hand were working in conjunction, completely removed from my mind. I knew the others were just standing there, staring at this Squall who was right there, but.. right there? I could almost see the scene from outsede myself, in my minds eye, Leonheart staring at Leonheart. It was as though watching the last hour and a half had given me a disconnection from myself, as if I was playing out a loop... and it was then that it had hit me. Something was wrong; horribly, horribly wrong.  
  
Suddenly, without warning, Ultemecia writhed at Greaver's intrusion, as if she hadn't noticed for the last few minutes... or I had dreamed up that time and space. I almost lost my grip on the gunblade with the sudden violent movements, but I knew what I had to do. I cocked the hammer on the revolver base and pulled the trigger, the explosion ringing loud in my ears. The other Squall ran up to me and grabbed my shoulder.  
  
"What are you doing?" he shouted tersely. I couldn't believe what an idiot I really am sometimes. Shoving him back to where Quistis was regaining consiousness, I moved closer to the opening rip above Ultemecia.  
  
"I'm fucking going home." I looked into the time compression rip and saw exactly what I should have seen; the meadow outside the orphanage, in full spring bloom, flower pedals drifting in the wind. Then it moved. Not like the wind rippled the waves of grass, but reality actually moved, revealing the absolute nothingness that was beyond everything. It was then that I realized time and space was a fabric, a pattern, and I was headed outside. I turned back, and motioned to the other Squall not to make the same mistake I just made, but it was too late; I didn't understand me, or was too stupid and pig-headed to listen...  
  
Ultemecia wasn't finished. Far from it. That had been my mistake the last time, and it was my mistake now, and it will forever be my mistake; I am doomed. How many times have I done this? I know only two, but there could be an infine number of myself, all trapped outside, looking in. She killed us, crushed us into that oblivion, but for me she saved a special torment; the punishment of watching my own faults , my own mistake, my own stupidity over, and over... for eternity. So this is Hell.  
  
* * * *  
  
"SeeD. SeeD SeeD SeeD. Kurse all SeeD."  
  
Ultemecia's words ring hollow in my ears again, although they scared me witless the first time I heard them. The witch's horrid lisp was more of a joke this time around; something to be borne like her prideful boasting before her ultimate defeat.... 


End file.
